The Preacherman has pulled out the bourbon, and he's writing before it starts to kick in.

10. In spite of the outcome, this was a fantastic game. Overall, it was well-played by both teams. Unfortunately, the Jets played just good enough to win it, and the Steelers played just bad enough to lose it.

9. I cannot believe I'm saying this in my pre-bourbon buzz, but Bruce Arians actually called a pretty good game. I was impressed with the diversity in the run game, and the protection schemes as well. The draw was actually a good play call if scott had decided to block instead of flop.

8. Sad thing is that Jon Scott played easily his best game of the day up until the safety. Ben had really outstanding protection for most of the day, and Scott even handled his man one on one several times. But the safety play was a steaming mound by anyone's standards. He didn't even have to make a good block, just get a piece of Taylor long enough to get Moore past the LOS. BTW, I was about to be critical of Moore for not reaching the ball out of the EZ, but decided he did the right thing to take a safety rather than risk giving up the ball for a TD.

7. I thought Troy P would be the guy we missed the most. Turns out Heath Miller is the man. Spaeth came on and played half-decent, Johnson blocked well in the second half. But their drops early in the game probably cost the Steelers points that could have made a huge difference. No, there is no guarantee that the drives would have produced, but another set of downs would have been nice, just to find out. Add to that the next to last play of the game. If Spaeth doesn’t get in the way, Sanders catches that for 6 and we win the game.

6. Ben Roethlisberger is still the man. It’s amazing what the guy can do under the worst circumstances, even more amazing what he can do given time to throw the ball. Take out the drops, some oddly missed holding/PI calls, and the guy had us where we needed to be at the end in spite of everything.

5. That said, Ben let the ball go to the ground twice in critical situations. That cannot happen. He also missed some easy TD chances, particularly on that awesome fake spike.

4. Phil Simms and Boomer Esiason have to be the biggest douchebags known to all of humanity, and their jobs should be revoked along with their man-cards. Boomer had no clue what the tiebreaker was if the Steelers lost; and Phil was dumb enough to say that Spaeth’s miss was Ben’s fault. Ball was high, but the rule for “man football” is: If you get two hands on the ball, you should catch it.

3. There is not much to say about the defense. They played adequate, but not great. I give them credit for getting Big Ben the football with enough time to do something. Ryan Mundy isn’t great, but he’s still better than Tyrone Carter. Good play to get the stop on 3rd down at the end. Clearly, the D doesn’t have that “It” factor without Troy. 15-yarder against Ryan Clark is still a stupid rule, but he left his feet and that is well-established as a penalty.

2. If defense was adequate, special teams were atrocious. I don’t know how much can be held against this group, considering that they are pulling kickers in from the streets. But that first KO return by Brad Smith was ridiculous. They just didn’t stay in their lanes at all.

1. You cannot blame the refs for this (or any) loss. But the number of missed pass interference/holding calls is beyond appalling. Even on the final play, there was a blatant hold right in front of the ref.

Re: 10 - I didn't think it was a good game at all. And not because the Steelers lost, but because they looked pedestrian on both sides of the ball and worse than pedestrian on STs. The Jets have become a fairly shitty team and Sanchez has blown of late. No blitzes after the first series or two? WTF?

Re: 1 - I don't think the refs intentionally called a shitty game to the Steelers' detriment, but they did call a shitty game to the Steelers' detriment. That H2H flag on Clark was a game changer. Instead of 3rd and not-an-easy-first, they got an auto-first and scored a TD shortly thereafter. Had they called the super-obvious PI at the end of the game, the Steelers would have at least two or three more tries at a TD from closer range (inside 5?).

Overall, I thought the game was completely boring and frustrating. It was more of an ineptness grudge match than a defensive one.

I knew that call on Clark was coming. Technically he did leave his feet, so that is going to draw a flag every time. I'm not putting forward the conspiracy theory on the calls, but they were pretty heinously NOT in favor of the Steelers.

I knew that call on Clark was coming. Technically he did leave his feet, so that is going to draw a flag every time. I'm not putting forward the conspiracy theory on the calls, but they were pretty heinously NOT in favor of the Steelers.

Agree completely on this.

Yeah, the Jets have been shitty for the past 2 games. But they weren't particularly shitty today or any other day since the first week. Unfortunately for us. I thought it was a hard fought, fun to watch game. We were in it til the last, the way I prefer.ST doesn't give up that TD on the first play, we win.Don't get that safety, we probably tie, with a good chance to win.

I kinda felt this game wasn't gonna go our way. Oh well.

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6. Ben Roethlisberger is still the man. It’s amazing what the guy can do under the worst circumstances, even more amazing what he can do given time to throw the ball. Take out the drops, some oddly missed holding/PI calls, and the guy had us where we needed to be at the end in spite of everything.

True dat. Wouldn't trade him for Joe Namath in his prime with bionic knees.

Yeah, I really didn't see this in the same light as JT. Just a difference in perspective. I thought the game was entertaining from the standpoint of going down to the wire, not really knowing who was going to earn the victory until the final play. I also have to say that our offense, while missing some of the big-play character that has helped them this season, certainly performed well except for a handful of plays.

11-17 on 3rd down, well over 100 yards more offense, a 100-yard rusher, and an advantage in TOP. Not a half-bad performance. Yet, still not good enough to win.

3. There is not much to say about the defense. They played adequate, but not great. I give them credit for getting Big Ben the football with enough time to do something. Ryan Mundy isn’t great, but he’s still better than Tyrone Carter. Good play to get the stop on 3rd down at the end. Clearly, the D doesn’t have that “It” factor without Troy. 15-yarder against Ryan Clark is still a stupid rule, but he left his feet and that is well-established as a penalty.

The Defense goes from great to merely good without Troy out there, but it's still not an excuse to play as passivley as they did. I say it after every Patriots loss and I'll say it now, I'd rather get smoked by an 80 yard bomb once in a while than get nickel and dimed down the field every fucking possession.

If **** had anything in his bag of tricks, the time to use it would have been after the first drive of the 2nd half when it was 17-10. Key time there as a big stop and another TD or even a FG probably puts it away. The Jets offense isn't good, and Sanchez has been erratic. This was the week to dial it up.

3. There is not much to say about the defense. They played adequate, but not great. I give them credit for getting Big Ben the football with enough time to do something. Ryan Mundy isn’t great, but he’s still better than Tyrone Carter. Good play to get the stop on 3rd down at the end. Clearly, the D doesn’t have that “It” factor without Troy. 15-yarder against Ryan Clark is still a stupid rule, but he left his feet and that is well-established as a penalty.

The Defense goes from great to merely good without Troy out there, but it's still not an excuse to play as passivley as they did. I say it after every Patriots loss and I'll say it now, I'd rather get smoked by an 80 yard bomb once in a while than get nickel and dimed down the field every fucking possession.

If **** had anything in his bag of tricks, the time to use it would have been after the first drive of the 2nd half when it was 17-10. Key time there as a big stop and another TD or even a FG probably puts it away. The Jets offense isn't good, and Sanchez has been erratic. This was the week to dial it up.

It was interesting watching the contrast between our approach to the 3-4 and Green Bay's, last night, playing the Patriots. They actually covered the short stuff and pounded on Welker. yeah, they got burned with a few matchups on their TEs, but that's just going to happen. They covered the short stuff tight, mixed in some tricky blitzes with an overall conservative approach to rushing the passer, and made Brady uncomfortable and ineffective almost all night. Packers would've won if not for the freaky kick return and the pick six, I think.

Granted, they have corners who can cover, and that's a big difference.

The draw was actually a good play call if scott had decided to block instead of flop.

Are you kidding me? That was the third time we ran that play out of that exact formation, once to Moore to the left, once to Mendenhall to the right, then the safety to Moore to the right. This is the NF fucking L, defensive players are smart and know how to read formation and personnel. It was a bonehead call made by a bonehead coordinator.

Besides the fact that Mendenhall is ripping 5 per carry. But no, no no, we have thirty-whatever Mewelde Moore, who runs exactly two plays, neither of which ever works.